


Of justice and revenge

by Loki_Slytherin



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Abuse, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Dark, Dark Betty Cooper, Domestic Violence, F/F, F/M, Fucked Up, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Incest, M/M, Parent/Child Incest, Rape Aftermath, Rape/Non-con Elements, S&M, Self Confidence Issues, Self-Harm, Self-Hatred, Sibling Incest, Suicidal Thoughts, The Author Regrets Everything, The Author Regrets Nothing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-18 04:53:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 20
Words: 14,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29112612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Loki_Slytherin/pseuds/Loki_Slytherin
Summary: One of his sisters made tapes to freak out the town. One of his sisters joined a cult. His third sister is dating his brother. His mother married a serial killer. His father shot Hiram Lodge. His boyfriends in jail.And he's a murderer.But it's riverdale, everyone's killed someone.
Relationships: Alice Cooper & Betty Cooper, Alice Cooper/FP Jones II, Betty Cooper/FP Jones II, Betty Cooper/Jughead Jones, Cheryl Blossom/Toni Topaz, Chic/Original Charles Smith (Riverdale), Hermione Lodge/Hiram Lodge, Joaquin DeSantos/Fangs Fogarty, Jughead Jones & Veronica Lodge
Comments: 46
Kudos: 5





	1. Chapter 1

Charles Smith stands there. His legs shake beneath him slightly and he will away the tears forming in his eyes. God, he fucked up. So bad.

"You killed Bret! And Joan! Your a serial killer, Charles!" Betty yells, her voice harsh and cold.

"I wanted to protect you. Both of you, he tried to hurt you, Betty, Jug, I just wanted to keep you safe. They were going to hurt you more, I'm sorry, I'm so god damn sorry. Please." Charles knows his voice is weak, he knows it trembles.

He thought he was doing the right thing. He thought that if he could kill their enemies he'd finally show them that he cared about them, and they'd finally care about him. That was all he wanted. To be loved. Growing up in that god forsaken pit of doom, no one had loved him. The sisters of quiet mercy had punished his every action, broken him in, bent him to their will. Most of the time Charles had been drugged out, locked up and alone. Till he met Chic and ran away.

"Protect me? Oh Sweetheart, I don't need protecting. I can look after myself. You say you did this for our family, huh? Well, I think its finnally time I teach you how to be a part of this family. See, we have some special personal things we do. Things that realy show how much a family we are. And I think its time for you to join us, Charles. Jughead, do you agree?" Betty asks, her voice calculating and cruel.

"Betty. Please. Let him be. We can take him to the police or something instead." Jughead says, and he already looks uncomfortable.

"The police? I think, the sheriff will come to us instead, don't you, Juggy? Don't you want to see him punished? I think our brother needs to pay for his crimes. I think, he needs to be taught a lesson." Betty says. Charles feels fear shoot through his body, and waves of nausea crash over him. He does not want this. In fact, he'd rather be stuck with the sisters of quiet mercy than with Betty. Charles cannot help but feel like something is realy very very wrong.

"Juggy. Mum and Daddy should be home soon. I need to go get changed. Handcuff Charles to the table leg please. And strip him off" Betty says. She turns away and heads up the stairs. Jughead chews at his lips awkwardly and then gazes at Charles.

"I can't get you out. Not yet. The locks on the door- I can't leave. I don't agree with this, any of it. It went to far- I don't know how to get them to stop. I'm so sorry." Jughead's voice is trembling, and the sick feeling with in Charles grows.

"I need you to get undressed. Please. don't make this any harder than it alreaady will be. If Betty comes down and you aren't where she asked- we'll both suffer." Jughead begs. Charles gazes down at the floor, dread mingling with fear. Yet the determined part in him, the part in him that does'nt want to die, the little place inside him where he retreats when things get shitty, swells inside him, filling him with a way to survive.

Charles sheds his outift, and lets his brother chain him to the table.


	2. Punishment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Betty extracts her punishment

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning for incest and rape this chapter

Charles lay on the floor for perhaps ten minutes. His bare back pressed hard against the table leg and began to throb somewhat, but he couldn't move enough to get into a comfier position. And the honest truth was that Charles didn't expect it to matter soon.

Jughead had been studiously avoiding Charles's gaze, instead choosing to sit by the sink and down rather a lot of water. And some beer. Quite a lot of beer, actually, and Charles had to admit that he was slightly worried about his baby brother. He knew the harm alchohol could cause, he had seen how it made some of Chic's clients. They were always rougher when they had been drinking, and it was not uncommon for Chic himself to find solace in cheap beer after nights with particurlaly hard customers.

"Do you want some?" Jughead asked, holding out a can of beer to Charles.

Charles shakes his head. He needs to be sober, if he is sober he has a better chance of escaping. If he lets himself drink then he won't be able to get away. If he lets himself drink, he may as well be surrendering to the sick games his sister wants.

The doorbell rings, and Jughead goes to answer it. It is FP and Alice, and at first Charles thinks perhaps he might have been saved. But as Betty descends the stairs and greets them, Charles realizes he is wrong. Despite his best efforts, even his camera's had not picked up on this shit.

When Betty walks down the stairs, the first thing Charles's notices is her wig. Dark black, bobbed short, with a fringe. Her makeup is heavy, and the only clothes she is wearing are a set of lacy black underwear. A pair of knee high boots are apon her feet.

"Your'e back at last!" She gasps out. "See, tonight, Juggy and I found out a secret. Charles here has been a bad boy. He was killing people for us. For me!isn't that so flattering? But here's the thing, I think he needs some punishment. So I think it's finally time to include him in our fun. Of course, it doesn't have to be fun for him. Do you agree?"

"Of course I agree. Naughty boys need punishment." Alice says, kissing Fp hard on the mouth. Betty laughed, a shrill laugh, quite unlike the one that Charles remembered so fondly. Betty walks into the centre of the room, and Fp walks over to her, kissing her as he had just kissed Alice.

"Is JB out again?" Fp asked. "She should join us one night. Perhaps when she's older."

Alice had gotten undressed while the others had been talking. Now she walked over to where Charles lay on the floor. She ran a gentle finger across his cheekbone, her icy cold touch spreading tendrils of horror down Charles's spine. Charles whimpered slightly, and then Alice slapped him hard across his face. Alice, not mother. He would never be able to think of any of these people as family again.

"I think someone needs a gag." Betty says, walking over to a cupboard under the kitchen sink. Charles wondered why he had never looked in there before. A range of items spilled out, each one filling him with sickness. Gags and whips, handcuffs, chains, collars, the items in there were not appealing.

She walks over, holding a gag and a whip. Roughly, she grabs Charles's hair and pulls his head forward, forcing the ring gag into his mouth. She pushes his head backward, and Charles tried not to react as his head slammed into the table leg. He feels a couple of tears slipping down his cheeks and tried desperatly to fight them off. He won't cry. Not yet, not now, not in front of them.

Charles struggles to focus on whats going on around him. He can tell that everyone is undressed now, even Jughead. Alice and Fp are already touching each other, Alice pushed up against the wall, letting out little gasps of pleasure. Betty flicks her wrist at Jughead to summon him over, and he walks over there. Charles feels his hands being untied, and almost wishes he had taken Jughead up on that drink. At least it would have numbed his senses.

Betty pushes Charles to the floor, lying on his front, and she begins to work at his cock, touching softly and delicately. Charles wants to push her off, to run away, but he can't, one hand is still tied to the table. He closes his eyes and lets one solitary tear fall. Betty laughs when she sees the tear, and tells Jughead to come and kiss her. Jughead obliges, kissing Betty as Charles sits there, eyes shut, growing hard against his will.

He tries to pretend that it isn't Betty. He tries to picture himself with Chic, tries to imagine this situation very differently. Tries to convince himself that he wants this, that this is something he chose, that it isn't his sister making his body react like this. After a few minutes, it would appear that Betty grows bored. She slides a tight ring around him, and rolls him over.

She takes the whip off the table where she must have placed it earlier and begins to beat him. Charles can't contain the soft cries that leave his mouth, the overwhelming fear and hopelessness threatens to sufocate him. He can't breath, the gag is pulled tight into his moth and his breath is coming in short gasps. He knows he has drool and blood and tears all over his face, but he can't wipe it away.

Betty kisses his back, her lips running soft across the inflamed surface, her teeth gently grazing the cuts on his back. She licks at his wounds, purring slightly. She kisses his neck, his cheek, licking the tears away. Then she gets up and goes over to Alice, and takes FP's place, kissing her own mother, touching her own mother, making love to her mother, if this gross perversion could even be considered love.

Fp takes Betty's place with Charles, while Jughead joins in with Alice and Betty. Fp is gentle, almost more caring than Betty, but his acts are worse. He pulls Charles to his knees and forces him to suck him off, ignoring Charles's weak whimpers of protest. When Alice and Betty have finished, Alice joins Fp and Charles, while Jughead and Betty have sex. Charles is struggling to stay conscious by now, all he feels is pain and shame.

Alice removes the ring and forces herself onto him. Pulling him against the table. Fp forces himelf into Charles, and Alice and Fp work together, Charles trapped in between them, barely conscious and unable to protest.

When they are finished, Alice injects Charles with a drug of some sort, making him fall into an unconcsious heap on the floor.


	3. Getting out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jughead gets Charles out of the Cooper Jones house

"Shit." Jughead Jones swore under his breath. He couldn't just sit here any more. This mess had gone quite far enough. He looked over to his right were Betty lay sleeping on the bed. Her blonde hair was sprawled out, her naked body covered by the sheet.

"I'm sorry Betty. I do love you. But I can't sit by while you torture our brother. I have to leave. Goodbye." Jughead says quietly, rolling out of the bed. He carefully gets dressed into a shirt and jeans, pulling his beloved beanie onto his head.

Jughead carefully puts his laptop into his bag, glad that he keeps most of his belongings already packed. He doubts he has long before Betty wakes up. He quietly opens the bedroom door and walks downstairs into the kitchen.

When he sees Charles lying covered in blood, unconscious and naked on the floor, Jughead cannot help the waves of guilt that crash through him. He should have tried harder to prevent what happened.

Jughead runs his forehead in frustration. It is clear that he won't be able to carry Charles anywhere safe. He can't call the police, that would only bring Fp, and calling an ambulance would do him no good either.

Jughead pulls his phone out of his bag, scrolling through his contacts until he finds the number he's looking for. Toni Topaz. He presses on the number and turns the volume down, hoping he won't wake any of the occupants of the house.

"Jughead?" Toni asks when she picks up. "is everything okay?"

"No. Nothing is okay. Toni, some shits been happening at my house lately. With Betty. Things have been rough, and I've tried to submit to what they want, but tonight someone got hurt. I need you to come to my house with a car. I need to get me and Charles somewhere safe and then I'll explain. Please." Jughead begs, unsure of what he does if she refuses.

" Yeah okay. I'll come get you and you can come back to thistle house. It's where the serpents hang out now. Meet me out the front in ten minutes." Toni says hanging up.

Jughead breathes out a sigh of relief. Now he just needs to get Charles in some state of dressed and ready, and then get them both out the house. God, it'd be far better if Alice hadn't given him the drugs.

Jughead knows what drugs she used. They last for about 12 hours or so, knocking the person unconscious for the duration. They didn't want Charles to make any escape routes overnight. No doubt someone would have raped him in the morning too, before he would have woken.

Jughead breathed out a sigh of exasperation. He rubbed his eyes and picked up Charles's discarded clothes. He managed to ease the trousers onto his brothers body and then carried him outside to wait for Toni.


	4. Safety

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Charles and Jughead seek sanctuary with the serpents

When Charles awoke, he had very little idea where he was. His whole body throbbed with pain, and every movement left him gasping for breath. His mouth felt dry, and he knew he had a bruise across his cheek.

"Your awake." Cheryl Blossom says. She is sat next to Charles, lounging back in a chair, idly flicking through her phone. "I should probably go call your hobo brother. He said he wanted to know when your awake. But apparently, he couldn't be fucked to stay here and watch over you himself. So here I am. Babysitting."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be an inconvenience." Charles replies. Feeling a small amount guilty even though this really wasn't his fault.

"Just kidding Bond." Cheryl says rolling her eyes. "Jones! Your brother is awake! Now you'd better have a good reason as to why you came here and disturbed me and TT." she says the last part quieter, clearly aimed at Charles.

Jughead comes up the stairs, with Toni following, and a couple of serpents by her side. They slam open the door and rush in, loud and boisterous as ever.

"So, now your brother is awake, you'd better tell us what the hell is going on." Cheryl says. "Fangs, where is Joaquin? Go get him. I think these two idiots can keep an secret." Fangs nods quietly and leaves the room.

"Joaquin? I thought he was dead." Jughead asks.

"He faked his death and came to the serpents for refuge. He made us swear not to tell you though, thought you still might try to kill him." Toni says. She has walked across the room and now sits in Cheryl's lap, playing with her girlfriends hair.

Joaquin and Fangs walk in. judging by the fact they are holding hands, Charles's is fairly they are dating. It seems Jughead has the same idea, posing the question of "Weren't Fangs and Kevin a couple?"

"Yeah. But we split a few weeks ago. Kevin's sweet but he's kinda annoying. he's basically a walking stereotype. Playing up the gay best friend angle is really irritating." Fangs says. Charles suppresses a smirk.

"Feels the need to play up to queer stereotypes. It really is quite pathetic. He's never even faced that much homophobia. My darling mother sent me to the sisters of quiet mercy and even I didn't turn into a living example of bad representation."

"My mother sent me to the sisters of quiet mercy too, Cheryl, although since I was a baby I can hardly say it was for my sexual orientation. I think it was more out of convenience." Charles finds himself saying, unsure why he is sharing his life story with Cheryl Blossom, the mythic bitch, the Heather Chandler of Riverdale high.

"Well, I think this is enough moaning about straggots- sorry not sorry- so I suggest we move onto why Jughead brought you here." Cheryl says.

"I made some serious mistakes. I killed someone who hurt Betty and Jughead. I was trying to protect them. Betty decided that she would take into her own hands to extract justice- or perhaps revenge would be more accurate- on me. She and Alice and Fp ..." Charles trails off, unsure quite how to tell them what it was that had been done to him.

"Can I tell them?" Jughead asks, to Charles's relief. He nods his acceptance. "For some time now Betty has been becoming almost unrecognisable. She started having sexual relationships with Alice and Fp. She wanted me to join in but I just couldn't bring myself too. Last night, as punishment, Betty, Alice and Fp sexually abused and raped Charles. I can't forgive her for that. She's gone way to far this time."

"Holy shit. that's worse than Polly and Jason. Speaking of, I need to go check on the twins. You two can stay here for as long as you need."


	5. Hermione's offer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hermione comes to the serpents asking for help

It was midday by the time that Charles decided to go downstairs. The little room was irritatingly oppressive and reminded him of the sisters of quiet mercy.

The main hall of Thistle house was a mess. The Blossoms would have been horrified to discover what Cheryl had done. Baby toys littered the floor, empty beer cans lay on seats and pizza boxes lay discarded. Cheryl and Toni were sat on a couch holding a sleeping Dagwood, while Juniper was playing with Fangs, Sweet pea and Joaquin. Jughead was writing on his laptop on the corner of the room, as anti social as always.

The south side serpents had lost their edge. Without Fp, most of the older members had left, leaving the very small group here. The Whyte Wyrm wasn't usable any-more, so the serpemts had relocated to Cheryl's house and hung out, baby sitting and eating pizza, playing video games and skipping school.

Charles sat down next to Fangs and began tossing a baby toy. Juniper let out a delighted giggle and began trying to reach for it. Charles sits there and let's himself be drawn into his baby niece's games.

The peaceful silence is broken by a knock at the door.

"Who the hell would be knocking?" Toni asks, voicing the concern of all the group.

"TT, you go check. Tell us who it is before you let them in and then we'll decide what to do." Cheryl says.

Toni gets up and walks out of the room. A scend later she calls out "Its Hermione Lodge."

"Let her in TT." Cheryl says. The group is deathly silent, tense and all confused. Hermione Lodge has neither dealings with the serpents or dealings with the Blossom's.

A second later Hermione Lodge comes into the room, closely followed by Toni.

"What are you doing here?" Cheryl asked.

"I asked around and I heard that this was the new head quarters of the south side serpents. I need to speak to Fp. Is he here?" Hermione says, upset and urgency lacing her voice.

"No. My father is no longer a part of this gang. Any dealings you had with him, you can have with us." Jughead says.

"Shit." Hermione mutters under her breath.

"What deal where you going to propose. You want something from the serpents right? What did you expect in return?" Charles asks, judging by how Hermione was acting that that was what she wanted.

"I have nothing to offer that could be of any value to you." Hermione says softly.

"Really? What would you have offered FP? Jughead asks coldly.

"Do you remember when Veronica and I first moved here? I was in debt, thanks to Hiram, with the serpents. I couldn't pay up. Fp offered me a deal. I slept with him, he paid off my debts. I was hoping to persuade him to a similar deal now." Hermione says, shame filling her eyes.

"Holy Moly. Veronica said you weren't Fantine. And whatever you need is worth that? What do you need?" Cheryl asks, barely able to contain surprise.

"Protection. A few nights ago, Veronica was attacked by some men. They attempted to shoot her. Luckily Hermosa was there and saved her. But the men were there because Hiram is back to his old tricks. After that incident, Hermosa and Veronica asked for my help to bring down Hiram. We were nearly successful. I told him I planned to divorce him, Veronica and Hermosa stated their plans to run his company. But he turned violent, and started threatening us. We left, and I came here, hoping to ask the serpents to protect my daughter and I. However, with Fp no longer a part of this gang, I have nothing to offer. I apologize for the waste of time." Hermione turns to leave, sweeping out into the hall with as much dignity as she could muster.

"Wait. we'll protect you both. Veronica is my friend, and you are clearly desperate. You two can stay here." Cheryl says. "We've already picked up the Jones's strays, I don't see what difference a couple of Lodges make.


	6. Panic attacks

Veronica had joined them there about 10 minutes later.

She had arrived swiftly, and Charles could not remember seeing her looking so bad. Her make-up was smudged, her hair messy, and a dark bruise bloomed across her cheek. Charles suspected that Veronica's bruise matched his own.

"I need to go to work now." Fangs says shortly after Veronica's arrival. He leaves the uilding with a promise to Joaquin to be back soon.

"What does he work as?" Charles asks, curiosity over powering his desire to remain silent.

"He sells drugs." Cheryl says candidly. "I do not have any money of my own, I will not take control of the Blossom finances until my darling mumsy dies. The serpents are broke. The only income we have is through jingle jangle and um- tapes."

"Tapes?" Jughead questioned.

"Yeah. The tickle tapes didn't sell enough so we went one up. Turns out lesbian porn is pretty popular, and Fangs and Joaquin make some tapes as well. We make the tapes, and then Joaquin's brother, Ricky, takes them to a little store that deals with that kind of thing."

"You don't mean Ricky as in my sisters friend? And the store where Brett and Donna sold ponytail playmate?" Jughead asks. At the mention of Brett, Charles's winces slightly. Surely Jughead won't extract more punishment for his murder?

Charles feels his breath beginning to speed up and the familiar sensations of a panic attack threaten to overwhelm him. He can't take any more. He can't go back to Betty. He can't stomach her punishments again. He can't take this.

Standing up suddenly, he tries to prevent the rising panic. Jughead won't send him back to Betty. he'd sooner die than let himself be taken back there. Charles runs into the bathroom, shutting the door behind him and just about managing to slide to the floor as he desperately tries to get his breathing back under control.

After a few minutes, he shudders, dragging himself up, leaning heavily against the side of the bath. He rubs his eyes and realizes he's been crying. He shakily walks over to the sink and splashes water into his face. He can't help but feel that he's to weak, to broken to even be able to sit around discussing jobs like a normal person. Just one mention of Bretts name and he had gone into a spiralling panic.

Charles is disgusted by himself. Disgusted by how fragile he is, how weak he is. Disgusted by his body, disgusted by what Betty did to him. He scratches at his skin, digging his nails into his flesh, leaving long lines marring his skin. He tears at the skin on his arms, desperate to stay in control.

A gentle knock at the door makes Charles jump in surprise and hastily stand up. "Come in." he calls out.

Hermione Lodge comes into the room.

"Are you okay? It looked like you were having a panic attack back there." she asks.

"Yeah. God I'm so fucking pathetic. I can't even hold a freaking conversation with going crazy."

"You didn't go crazy. You had a panic attack. I get them sometimes. After what happened, it isn't surprising. Your allowed to lose control sometimes. Jughead told me what they did to you, and it doesn't make you weak. Going through that shit makes you strong. You aren't alone in this, you know. I know how isolated you feel right now, but you aren't the only one this has happened to. Toni and Cheryl have been through similar… as have I."

"I shouldn't be reacting like this though. I don't have the right to. Its happened to me before, when I was younger, and I didn't react this badly even then. And this time I deserved it."

"Whatever you did, you didn't deserve it. That I can be sure of. And maybe it feels different this time because it was people you trusted, it was your family."

"I did deserve it. Betty was right, it was punishment for my sins. I killed, Hermione, I killed Brett and Joan because of what they did to Betty and Jughead."

"That doesn't make you a bad person. You killed to protect them. I've killed people to protect Veronica. I killed Sheriff Minetta to protect myself. And yeah, maybe that makes me a villain, but that doesn't mean I deserved what Hiram did to me any more than you deserved what Betty and Alice and Fp did to you."


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter is a short filler chapter, prepare for some more action next chapter

Dinner was a casual affair. Kevin and Veronica had cooked, chicken nuggets and chips. Cheryl, being vegan, only ate chips, and due to lack of experience in cooking, Sweet pea had too take a burning tray outside.

Charles couldn't bring himself to eat. He managed to eat about two chips, but then he felt full. Or more accurately, he felt sick. Every time he swallowed it felt wrong. After the meal was over, the others placed nearly empty plates away and Charles scraped his left over food into the bin. As he turned around he felt his brothers eyes on him. Too his relief, Jughead didn't comment.

"I vote we watch a movie." Cheryl suggested when they got back into the living room.

"Yeah okay. Can we watch the hunger games?" Veronica asks.

"Eh boring. I vote a marvel movie." Toni argued.

"Star wars is obviously superior." Fangs threw in.

"How about we watch Harry Potter." Joaquin suggested.

"Yeah okay. That's good by me." Cheryl said. Hermione looked a little reluctant, even more so when her name sake appeared on screen.

"Harry Potter is good but its very straight," Cheryl moaned. "Like they have more explicit rape and incest and adultery than gayness"

"I'm fairly sure gayness is not a word." Toni mumbled sleepily.

"Can you just enjoy the movie for five minutes Cheryl? Every time we watch something you moan." Joaquin complained.

"Huh. Fine. But if movie producers actually made stories that were interesting then there wouldn't be anything to complain about."

"No, babe, I think even if the movie was perfect you'd find something to complain about." Toni commented.

"Hey, that isn't fair." Cheryl argued.

"Life isn't fair." Toni retorted, before she pulled Cheryl up by the wrist and dragged her off to bed.

Charles went to bed himself, and managed to fall asleep with an unexpected ease. He was plagued by an onslaught of nightmare while he slept.

"I love you babe." dream chic said, through the bars of a prison. But his face changed, growing rounder, more feminine, his short hair grew longer, tying itself up into a signature ponytail. Betty cooper stood before him, trapped behind the bars of the cells.

"I love you, Charles, and that is why I need to punish you. So you always do the right thing, brother. So you never again kill anyone, even if they deserve it, and most importantly, you never ever leave me again. Now, your going to come with me, and I'm going to find darling Mumsy and your Daddy, and their going to help punish you." Dream Betty said, her tone even more chilling than real Betty's.

"No- I – you can't..." Charles stammers, throat constricting with fear.

"Yes I can, brother, and I'm going to show you how." Dream Betty says. She steps forward, walking through the jail bars, into the room. She begins to unbutton her shirt, and Charles whimpers, and tries to picture himself somewhere else.

It works. Charles is forced out of his nightmare.


	8. The beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Toni has some bad news. And some more...

The following morning seemed uneventful at first. The group lounged around, Hermione and Charles more than a little out of place with the group of otherwise teens. At around 10, Fangs, Toni and Sweet pea went out to work, while the others stayed as they had all morning.

It was midday before anything happened.

Midday, when the three serpents came back. With news.

"We have a problem. Quite a big problem." Toni said. "They are cracking down on drug sales. There were police in several places where there wouldn't usually be, and at least three of my regular customers didn't want anything. And the man who usually gives me the drugs wasn't there. So we're out of business. It seems that someone is trying to run us out of business."

"Hiram." Hermione breathed, at exactly the same time as Charles breathed out his fathers name. The two exchange a look.

"It could be either of them." Cheryl said. "The important thing is that they aren't going to succeed. So we are going to struggle selling drugs for a few weeks. We can find other ways to keep an income coming in, and soon enough whomever it is we'll realize what's happening. Anyway, its not like they've got any legal legs to stand on right? I mean there's nothing stopping Charles or Hermione from just going to work."

"Actually, there is. FP Jones released an arrest warrant for Hermione Lodge, Charles Smith and Hermosa Lodge this morning. On various charges of murder." Toni informs them.

"Interesting that Veronica and I were not among those they want back." Jughead comments.

"If Daddy didn't care about me I doubt I'd still be alive. He may not like me all the time, but he does love me, and he doesn't want me behind bars. The arrest of my mother and sister would force me to return to him anyway, I expect is his reasoning. And I would say similar for you, FP Jones doesn't want the son who bares his name behind bars either."

"That makes a weird kind of sense actually." Jughead responds.

"We could kill them." Joaquin suggests quietly. "They deserve it. It would solve all our issues."

"No!" Jughead shouts out. "No. because yes, they deserve it. Yes, they've done horrible things. And yes, we've killed before. Between us we've covered up murders of Jason Blossom, and of other random Blossom family members. we've joined cults and paid people to shoot others. Between us we've sold drugs and made illegal pornography. Between us we've killed Tall Boy, and Brett and Joan, and that serial killer in Pops, and Sheriff Minetta. But we need to start being the heroes. And that means no more killing. No more blood will we shed, or I'm walking straight out this door and telling all your dirty little secrets to the world."

Charles found himself agreeing with his younger brothers speech. There was something surprisingly therapeutic about listening to what the others had done, and knowing that Jughead thought that despite all that there was still hope for them.

"Fine. We won't kill them. we'll find a different way to bring them down, and when this is all over, each of us is going to live our lives how we should have had we not been drawn into this world of murder."


	9. Pain and Beauty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Someone goes missing

"Archie is missing." Veronica says, walking into the dining room. "I had to tell him something important earlier. He didn't reply. I called his mother, and she says he went out on a walk last night and never returned home."

"Are you sure he's missing?" Cheryl asks."What did you need to tell him anyway?"

"I- I can't say. Not yet. But yeah, I'm sure. Archiekins would never just ignore me like this. He never ignores me. He tells me everything, even things that he didn't need to like the fact that he and Bett-" Veronica cuts off sharply, inhaling a trembling breath.

"Him and Betty what, Veronica? Honestly, Betty could be a suspect in this, you know. If you know something, you need to tell us. It could save his life." Charles finds himself saying firmly. He doesn't want to be a pain, but they really need to know every detail about Betty and Archie right now.

"I can't say." Veronica murmured to the floor.

"No. you can't. But I can." Hermione cuts in harshly. "Betty kissed Archie. Quite recently, while you were all singing in the musical. Archie told Veronica at the prom. I'm sorry Jughead, but Charles is right. We all need to know what we're up against."

"Honestly nothing that she does can surprise me anymore." Jughead says, his voice trembling just a little.

"It would sort of make sense if Betty kidnapped Archie. If she doesn't want to lose Jughead, then she needs Archie out of the way. I presume she still cares about you?" Cheryl says.

"I believe so. To some degree. I do not know if she is even capable of love. She has slowly begun slipping deeper into insanity, her actions getting worse and worse." Jughead says. "Charles, is it possible that the serial killer gene is taking over? Turning her into a monster?"

"I don't know." Charles replied. "I lied to Betty when I told her I had the gene, Hal Cooper was not my father, there was no way I could have had the gene save by extreme coincidence. I told her I had it too because I wanted her to feel less alone. I wanted her to trust me. A very see through and fragile lie, one that I am surprised she did not see through. The reality is, I know almost nothing about the gene. I have studied serial killers, and never before have I seen of a case where someone with no darkness in them found themselves becoming evil. I expect the cruelty inside of my sister has been rotting there for a very long time, and perhaps now she had grown the confidence to let the monster out."

"Jesus Christ." Sweet Pea mutters.

"Yes. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go somewhere to think." Charles says, almost impressed by how well he was holding together, but also on the very brink of overwhelmed. He walks as calmly as possible into the room he was now sharing with Jughead. Sinking onto the soft bed, Charles carefully takes out the knife from the kitchen he had smuggled up here yesterday. Breathing slowly, trying to control the overwhelming despair, he brings the blade onto his upper arm.

One small cut. Not long. Not deep. Enough to pierce the skin, enough to cause precious drops of ruby red liquid to drip down his arm. Three drops, each one as perfect as diamonds.

There was a beauty in the pain, a beauty Charles had felt before in few other pass times. Love caused the beauty. Music caused the beauty. Art caused the beauty. Poetry caused the beauty. And pain caused the beauty.

The control that the knife gave him filled Charles with a strange kind of calm. A kind of peace. A little part of the gaping whole inside him was filled in, as ugly as mud being poured into a pot hole. Holding the knife against his arm, causing himself pain, that was one of precious few things Charles could control.

He couldn't control the fact he was abandoned at birth. He couldn't control how the sisters of quiet mercy treated him. He couldn't control his love for Chic, no matter what the aforementioned nuns believed. He couldn't control what Betty had done to him. He couldn't control what Alice had done to him. He couldn't control what Fp had done to him. He couldn't control the pain that was forced upon him.

But he could control adding more pain.


	10. On Pain of death

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Veronica cries and Charles goes for a walk

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy shit. Have you watched the most recent episode of Riverdale? That physically hurt 

Charles walked into the hallway outside Thistle house's most prominent bathroom. From where he stood, he could hear someone inside crying. He carefully knocked on the door, quietly enough that whoever it was could choose to ignore him.

"Are you alright in there?" he asks.

"I- No-" the reply came. The door was flung open to show Veronica, tears pouring down her face, dark shadows beneath her eyes showing the tell tale signs of exhaustion.

"Hey, Veronica. Is this about Archie? We will get him back, I swear on my life. He'll be safe." Charles finds himself promising, completely aware that this was a promise he couldn't keep.

"No. I mean sort of. I – I'm pregnant. With Archie's baby, and I need him here. I don't know what to do. I didn't want to be a teen mum. I wanted to go to college, and live a life, I wanted everything to be good. I wanted to be happy. I can't do this alone."

"You aren't alone. You have your Mum, and the serpents, and Jughead. And we'll bring Archie home for you. I promise. I won't let them hurt Archie."

"I can't help but worry that what they did to you they will do to Archie. I know its selfish, but I don't want him to see such pain."

"That isn't selfish. Trying to protect those you care about is never selfish. While I can't be certain, I don't believe they will hurt Archie quite as much as me. With me it was all about punishment for what I did. Archie hasn't done anything wrong. They won't hurt him as badly."

To say Charles believed his own words wouldn't quite be a lie, but it may have been enough for Pinnochio's nose to grow. He was conflicted. Part of him believed that what Alice, FP and Betty did was punishment and revenge, their twisted idea of justice, but the other part of him believed that if Betty had feelings for Archie, she would certainly make full use of having him at her mercy. It really depended on how her brain was wired, and Charles was basing his idea of her thoughts of righteous anger of Hal.

Hal had killed those he believed to be doing the wrong thing. Rapists, which Charles thought deserved to die anyway. Those whom committed incest, although the black hood never specifically threatened anyone in that circumstance. Drug takers, like Moose and Midge, who were really undeserving of death. Adulterers, which Charles though was kind of ironic since Hal was married when he began seeing a prostitute. Homosexuals, which Charles found scarily ironic that he worked alongside Chic but attempted to kill Cheryl.

But the key point was that Hal had believed that those who had "sinned" were worthy of death. His way of murdering was of Justice and revenge. So Charles could only hope that Betty's brain would be wired similar.

"I hope you're right. I really do. I'm sorry if I triggered anything, I wasn't thinking. I think I'm going to go and tell my Mum about the baby."

"Yeah. That's a good idea. I need some air." the house was beginning to suffocate him, trapping him inside his body, preventing him from breathing freely.

Charles left Thistle house and walked down the path to the woods around it. The cool air woke his tired muscles up, the morning dew sparkled of spiderwebs like magic spells. The day was brisk and cool, the late spring air filling him with life. He walked a little further into the woods, entranced by being outside for the first time in days.

Suddenly, a gentle tap on the shoulder has him whirling around.

Betty.

Betty stands there.

Betty, her hair in a signature ponytail, as innocent looking as ever.

Betty, holding a syringe,

Betty, speaking the words "Hello brother."

Charles, feeling the air stooping coming to his lungs.

Charles, unable to breath.

Charles, routed to the spot, paralysed in fear, as helpless as a rabbit in the head lights.

Charles, unable to meet his sisters eyes.

Charles, memories of the last time he had seen her washing over him.

Charles, feeling the cold metal of a syringe placed against his leg, feeling the icy liquid enter his blood stream.

Charles, loosing consciousness.


	11. Jellybeans and justice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Charles is back with Betty

When Charles wakes up, he can tell he is wearing no clothes. He doesn't even need to open his eyes to see that. He can also feel that heavy chains are holding his arms to the wall, and he is practically forced into a standing position. The heavy chains are cold against his skin, and his back is pressed up against uneven jutted stone, cutting cruelly into his skin. His mouth feels dry and he is desperately thirsty. The rank smell of smoke and urine fills the air. He can hear the sharpening of knives, and steady breathing of someone else, and that noise is what makes him open his eyes.

At first, he struggles to focus on the sight before him. His eyes are out of focus, groggy sleep still holding them together, stronger than glue, heavier than lead.

When he does manage to focus, he almost wishes he hadn't.

Betty stands before him. She wears more clothes this time, and Charles is thankful for the small mercy. She walks over to him, and Charles feels relief course through his aching muscles as she lets him down. The chains fall down, weighing his exhausted limbs, and he drops to the floor, slumping against the wall in despair.

"Oh brother. You've been so naughty. Why did you run away? didn't you enjoy our games?" Betty says, the blade in her hand far to close to Charles arm for his liking.

"Of course I didn't enjoy your games. Your a sadistic bitch. Please, if there is any part of you that still cares, let me go. I'm your brother, Betty, can't you see that? And Jughead, Jughead will want you to let me go. Jughead left when you hurt me first. The more you do to me, the further you push him away. Let me go, and perhaps Jughead will return."

Charles knows he is lying. He knows Jughead won't return. He knows that Betty has already gone too far. But Betty doesn't necessarily know that.

"Oh please. Jughead won't return. Any fool can see that. But I don't need Jughead. I have his father… his brother… even his sister."

"No. don't hurt her. Please. she's too young, Betty, leave her alone." Charles finds himself begging. He can't let Betty hurt Jellybean any-more than he can get out of here.

"Well, perhaps it is a good thing that I have no interest in women. I only do what I do with my mother for FP's pleasure. And Jughead's, too, I suppose, though he never seemed to get much joy. So no, I won't hurt your sister like that." Betty says, licking the knife in her hand.

Charles breathes in relief.

"Although there are other ways to hurt someone. I could kill her, torture her, right now. she's upstairs. I could bring her down, and I could make her beg for death." Betty says.

"You wouldn't dare." Charles says, feigning a confidence he does not feel.

"Try me." Betty says.

"What would you want me to do? I'll do anything to protect her. Please, don't hurt her." Charles finds himself begging.

"I'm going to hurt you, to make you pay for what you did to Brett and Joan, and for running away. And you are going to submit to me, you will not struggle, you will not protest, you will not try to run, or I will hurt her. And after that, I'm going to fuck you. And you are going to make me cum. And you will find it pleasurable. Understood?" Betty asks.

"Yes. I understand." Charles mutters.

Betty walks over to the fire she has burning and takes a small pot off the fire. She brings it over. She dips something into it, a syringe, and draws some of the burning liquid into it. She walks back to Charles, and squeezes the syringe onto his skin. Burning liquid hits him and he fights back a scream.

"Oil. Simple cheap cooking oil, heated up and poured onto you. A fitting punishment I think." Betty says. Charles whimpers as she brings the knife to his chest and presses down, a thin trickle of red falling down Charles's chest. Charles grits his teeth, not sparing Betty the scream he knows she wants to hear.

Suddenly, there is a loud crash from upstairs.

"Shit. I'd better go check that. Stay here, brother, I'll be back soon."


	12. Hello brother

"Has anyone seen Charles? I'm slightly concerned. I haven't seen him since this morning." Jughead asked the group.

"Last I saw he was heading outside for a walk." Veronica said. "I think maybe we should look for him. And Archie too, if our suspicions are correct. They could be suffering. I vote we break into the Coopers house and see if we can find them."

"That could work. We need to get all the knives and weapons we have between us. I'll take my bow. We won't kill Betty, and we can't arrest her, though, so really we're just going full out illegal break in, threaten her, get Charles and Archie out and then come back here. Right?" Cheryl suggests.

"This is ridiculous. We can't live like this. We need to go above them. We need to have Daddy arrested." Veronica says.

"Mija, that won't work." Hermione says softly. "No one will believe us."

"What if we framed them. Like Donna and Brett and Joan tried to do to us." Jughead says.

"Okay. First we get Charles out of there. he's an FBI agent, he probably has some clue of what to do." Sweet pea weighs in. "Then we do this!"

five minutes later, the rough group of assorted criminals and high schoolers were gathered outside the Cooper's house. It wasn't exactly hard to get into the house. Especially considering Jughead had a key. As the door swung open, they walked into a thankfully empty living room. Quietly the group walked into the lounge and stood there, awaiting direction.

"Jughead?" came a questioning voice from the stairs.

"Jellybean" Jughead says. "you need to come with us. Do you know what's been happening in this house? Do you know where Charles is?"

"No." Jellybean said quietly. "Dad said he was a murderer, and that he and Betty and Mrs Cooper would make sure he couldn't hurt me. And they told me you and Betty had a fight and that's why you left. But something weird is going on, I know it is. You wouldn't just leave me here with no explanation. Even Mum gave me an explanation. So I figured something happened to you, and I tried to ask Ricky, but he wouldn't tell me anything."

"Yeah, well some stuff happened, JB. Bad stuff. Dad did some things, and you aren't safe here. Neither was I. Charles and I needed to leave. that's why I abandoned you. But I've come back for you. I'd never abandon you properly." Jughead says.

And that is when Fangs slips into the table. He tumbled over, and just caught the edge of the table. The lamp on it tumbled to the floor with a sickening thud.

"Shit." Toni mutters, and everyone is horrified when Betty comes running into the room.

"Hello Jughead." she says smiling.

"Betty. You are completely surrounded. We are armed. Tell us where Charles and Archie are." Veronica says, stepping forward.

"Three blind mice, three blind mice. See how they run, see how they run." Betty begins to sing. "They all run after the farmers wife who chops off their tales with a carving knife." her voice echoes eerily around the room.

"Where the fuck is my brother!" Jughead snaps.

"He's in the basement. But I don't have Archie." Betty says, smiling in a scarily child like manner.

"Three blind mice, three blind mice. See how they run. See how they run. They all run after the farmers wife who chops off their tales with a carving knife, three blind mice. Three blind mice. Have you ever seen such a thing in your life as three blind mice." Betty continues to sing.

Jughead races into the basement. He sees Charles lying limp on the floor.

"Hello brother." he says.


	13. To stay alive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Charles feels as if there's only one way out. Joaquin tries to convince him that his brother and sister still need him

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for suicide attempt

Charles stood in the garden of Thistle house once again.

He was a danger to them all.

While he was there, they would never be safe. While he was there, he was putting Jellybean and Jughead at risk. While he was there, he was risking the safety of Cheryl and Tony, of Fangs and Joaquin, of Hermione and Veronica, of Sweet pea, of his niece and nephew, Juniper and Dagwood Blossom. He couldn't let them all suffer for his mistakes.

He couldn't stay here, not when he put them all in peril by doing so.

Which gave him two options. Either he could leave. Run back to the apartment he and Chic had rented, live a hand to mouth existence as he had before he joined the FBI, change his name and his identity, and pray that no one recognized him, that no one would snitch on him.

Because if they snitched on him, he would either end up in prison, which would not be so bad, Charles knew he could actually survive that, or He'd end up back in the hands of FP, Alice and Betty. And Charles knew he could not let that happen.

Which only left the second option. Death.

Charles had always thought when he was younger that he would never kill himself. The idea that he would give up had terrified his younger self. Suicide in general had made him frightened, frightened that he would do it to himself.

Now though, it felt like an appealing option.

Charles knew that suicide left tragedy for the family. He read of the D and D players who poisoned themselves in Riverdale, drinking blue poison from challises. He knew of the teen in Greendale who couldn't take it any-more after his girlfriend died in a tragic accident. He knew of how Cheryl Blossom had stood on the ice, too scared to go on after her brothers death. He knew of the stonewall prep teacher who jumped out of the window. It was odd, Charles thought, about how he viewed those deaths as very different from his own.

Charles had a knife in his pocket. A small blade, the kind carried by the ghoulies and the serpents. The ideal kind for ending his own life.

He didn't want Jellybean or Jughead to discover his body. Especially not Jellybean. But there wasn't really anything he could do about that.

Charles lent against the prickly tree, concealed from view. He had already left a note to the few people he cared about inside. A goodbye letter. A part for Jughead to read. A part for Jellybean to read. A part for Chic to read. His final farewell.

Charles raised the knife to his wrist, and gently let his eyes slide shut. He held the cool metal against his skin and just waited there, letting time fly by, resting, building up the nerve to cut down.

He wasn't sure how long he stood there.

Wasn't sure how long he stood there, the blade ready to end him, the harsh wood scratching him, the wet rain trickling down his neck, the sounds of birds weeping sorrowfully in the trees. He wasn't sure how long he stood there, doing nothing but waiting.

"You don't want to do that." a voice said from behind him.

Charles jumped, and the blade tumbled to the floor.

He turned around to face the voice, it was Joaquin.

"You don't know what I want."

"Perhaps not. But I can tell that your clearly hurting. I can tell that what they did to you affected you far more than your willing to let anyone see. I can tell that your willing to do this. I can tell that whatever it is that is haunting you will ease." Joaquin replied.

"I'm not doing it for me. I could survive. I know that. But if I stay here, I endanger my brother and sister. If I leave, they will find me again, and I can't handle that. So this is the only way to keep Jughead and Jellybean safe, and not allow them to have what they want." Charles replied.

"Your wrong. Doing this won't keep them safe. Jughead is towing the line between sanity and falling off the edge. He drinks, constantly, and when he isn't drinking he's crying. This will send him spiralling. And Jellybean, she's a strong girl, but she is not as naive as you all think she is. She and Ricky are hiding something. I don't know what yet, I'm trying to work out what they are doing without hurting them. I don't want my brother to get into trouble any-more than you want your sister too. If your dead, you can't protect her."

Charles finds himself nodding.

"I'll stay alive. To protect them."


	14. Tapes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They discuss the suspects for Archie's kidnapping

An hour later, back inside Thistle house, the rag tag group of misfits, more chaotic and less good as a team than even the avengers, sat around discussing how to save Archie.

"There are a multitude of possibilities. Almost everyone in Riverdale is a suspect." Toni said.

"That's true. I think we should think logically about this." Charles says. "Of course, this could be something that would turn out to be impossibly random for us to solve, something like Archie running away, or a random kidnapping. In that case, we don't stand a chance of finding him."

"Oh wow, Charles, that's so helpful." Cheryl muttered snarkily.

"But given who we are and the town we live in, my suggestion would be that it is most likely someone we already know. If we work on those assumptions, it should not be too hard. I suggest we make a list of suspects, work through them, and then find the most likely suggestion." Charles continues, ignoring his sisters boyfriends sister.

"Betty seems innocent. But I strongly suggest that my fath- that FP Jones could well have something to do with Archie's disappearance." Jughead suggests. Though Charles noticed Jughead's refusal to call FP father, he does not comment on it. Something inside him feels warm at Jughead's disowning of those he previously cared about. His brother chose him.

"I think it would be right to include my ex husband in the suspects. Hiram Lodge practically runs this town. Any illegal activity will surely involve him. He has a particular proclivity for avoiding prosecution." Hermione states clearly.

"My Mother may have something to do with it. Archie has red hair, and she is desperate for a replacement Jason. Chic is in jail and Dagwood is here, it wouldn't surprise me if she got out of the brothel I locked her in and went searching for a Jason Junior." Cheryl says.

"You locked your mother in a brothel?" Sweet pea asks, unable to hold back a smirk.

"Alice Smith must be considered a suspect." Veronica says quietly.

"I think whomever is behind the video tapes is a suspect. Perhaps if Archie found something about their identity out..." Fangs suggested.

"No!" Jellybean says loudly, loud enough for them all to jump. "The people behind the tapes didn't take Archie." She stammers.

"What do you mean JB?" Jughead asks, suspicion and dread in his voice.

"The people making the tapes- it was Ricky and I. I'm so sorry. I just wanted you to notice me. Mum had left, and you spent all your time with Betty and Dad spent all his time with Alice. I'm so sorry. I wanted to feel important." Jellybean says, tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Its okay." Charles says. "I understand how you felt completely. Next time, maybe try talking to Jug and me though."

"Yeah. I really am sorry. I know I caused you all so much stress, and you spent so long trying to figure out who it was."

"It doesn't matter, your tapes were insignificant to other tapes I found anyway. And compared to Brett threatening Jughead, honestly, those tapes caused me few issues." Charles says.

"What other tapes?" Jellybean asked curiously.

"Absolutely non of your business." Jughead cut into the conversation. "Charles did you have to bring that tape up?"

"The tape of you and Betty at stonewall prep? don't worry Jug, I already knew about that one. The place were I got inspiration for making the videotapes played videos like that and I accidentally walked in on the room with that one playing. I walked out really quickly though." Jellybean says

Jughead was bright red in the face.

"So- Uh- who is the most likely suspect in the Andrews kidnapping case?" Hermione said, changing the direction of this rather awkward conversation, much to infinite relief of all three Jones children.

"I honestly suspect that even if it were actually someone else who chose to kidnap Archie, Hiram Lodge would have some idea. His fingers are in every pot. He knows everything that goes on in Riverdale. He has eyes in the police, eyes in the school, eyes in the serpents and the ghoulies. Every mayor we've ever had has been under his control, and now he himself is mayor. Every crime committed in Riverdale, he is aware of. I would be strongly surprised if he did not know about Archie." Charles says.

"Also he has a multitude of reasons to want Archie. He may be planning on using him s bate to bring Veronica back, it may be punishment for Archie double crossing him, it may be he wants Archie to help him, it may be Archie has proof against him, it may even be jealousy of the Andrews men for sleeping with the Lodge women, a sort of stain on his honour." Cheryl says, summing up the Lodge family just as well as Veronica could have.

"I am impressed by how accurately your idea of who my father is was." Veronica comments.

"It is not surprising. The Blossoms are very similar to the Lodges in many respects." Cheryl responds.

"I suggest we go after Hiram Lodge. If he is holding Archie, does anyone know where would be ideal?" Charles asks.

"The Lodge cabin the woods. Its on the Greendale side of Sweetwater river. Its very secluded and secret. Its were I was meeting Sheriff Minetta- and where I shot him."

"Isn't that where the video tapes that JB was making were filmed? wouldn't that be too obvious a crime scene now." Joaquin raises.

"Actually, quite the opposite. That case is officially closed- they all think it was me who did it and FP has officially closed the case- there will be no one there for a while. And any evidence later found would be blamed on missed evidence. In that I am now both the key suspect and the main investigator, any one investigating would really not stand a chance." Charles says, shrugging.

"All this is of course assuming Archie is still alive." Joaquin voices what no one else was able to say


	15. No time to die

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Charles does not like being compared to James Bond. Fangs points out the missing link in the puzzle, leading Charles to work out an important clue as to how Betty's brain works

"He is still alive! No thanks to you though! I ought to stab you back too." Veronica snaps at Joaquin.

"Hey! I only stabbed Archie because otherwise your crazy father, her crazy mother, his crazy boyfriend and Betty's crazy father would have killed me!" Joaquin snapped, pointing at Cheryl and then Charles.

"Not my fault." Cheryl says, looking pissed. "Might I remind you that you also helped cover up the death of my brother!"

"Well yeah! Because if I hadn't done that your crazy father would have killed me! can't any of you have normal fathers!" Joaquin argues.

"Lets all just calm down. everyone's done things they shouldn't have. everyone's family's done things they shouldn't have. everyone's boyfriend – or in Toni and Jughead's case girlfriend- has done something they shouldn't have. Condemning people for the mistakes of others will get us nowhere." Hermione says calmly. Cheryl looked insulted at being mentioned as Toni's girlfriend and nothing more, but thankfully she held her tongue.

"So, what is the plan?" Fangs asked, tracing lines across his boyfriends hand in an attempt to calm him down. Charles noticed that Toni was doing the same thing to Cheryl and secretly wished Chic was here so he could do it to him.

"I have no idea. My job is to work out who the killer is, not to actually catch them." Charles shrugged.

"Aren't you literally James Bond? He always does the catching of that villains." Sweet Pea says.

"I work for the FBI. I am not James Bond. James Bond is British, works for the MI6, is a rapist and has murdered more people than I have." Charles says annoyed.

"Veronica, Cheryl and Jughead, didn't you help catch the gargoyle king and all the others? aren't you better suited to working out how we catch them?" Joaquin said.

"I helped catch Penelope Blossom because I know her well. She is my mother, as much as she may not like my love of the same sex, my hatred of the Blossom name and my lack of ability to obey." Cheryl says coolly.

"If your mother hates you for being gay, why did she willing work alongside Chic?" Fangs raises. "Also Hal Cooper helped her right? wasn't Chic a gay drug dealer? Didn't the Black hood kill Midge because of the drugs and attempt to kill Cheryl because of her sexual orientation? Is that normal for a serial killer to be so changing morally?"

"No. that's actually very very weird. Usually if a killer murdered like Hal Cooper did, to get rid of the so called sinners, they would be more consistent. There is something off about the way Hal Cooper killed, actually. Some of what he did made no sense. Like targetting Fred. Most killers would have blamed Hermione for that, and thus targetted her." Charles says, gears churning in his brain.

"Perhaps this could help us work out what is wrong with Betty? And therefore show us how to defeat her?" Jughead phases it as a question.

"Potentially. I think perhaps it is to do with the way their darkness manifests. At points, they are just seemingly crazy, at other points they are murderers. If Hal Cooper hated Homosexuals and drug dealers in his sane mind, then when he flipped out and went serial killer he would almost remember the hatred, but not understand why he was so prejudiced. If by the time he joined Penelope, he had given in entirely to the darkness, he would have none of his former selves prejudice." Charles explains.

"So dark Betty has taken over completely?" Jughead asks. "And her darkness hasn't manifested into hate, its manifested into lust..."

"Yes. Her love for you drove her insanity to act purely on that. If we had paid more attention to dark Betty, when the Betty we knew wanted her gone, we could have saved her." Charles muttered. "Its all my fault."

"It isn't your fault. We need to focus on the future, not the past. And I've thought of a way we can save Archie and bring everyone down at once." Veronica says, determination strong in her powerful voice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know how human brains work. I am not a psychology major, although I believe someone I care very greatly about is studying psychology. However, I am faulty sure this is not how the brain works and therefore probably this chapter makes no sense to anyone with actual knowledge. Sorry.


	16. Veronica's plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Veronica's plan isn't all it seems

"So, Veronica, what is this plan?" Toni asks.

"When all the midnight club shit was going on and I wanted to get my parents in the same room, I wrote them each a letter, telling them to come to the same place. If we could do that for Hiram Lodge, Betty Cooper, Alice Smith, FP Jones, and Penelope Blossom, lure them to the same space, isolated in the middle of nowhere. Tell them to bring their unnamed "Hostage." whomever has Archie will hopefully bring him. Once we're there, we can save Archie, while they all fight."

"Why would they all fight?" Sweet pea asks.

"My Mother blames Alice for Jason's death. FP tried to shoot Hiram, even if he was working on Hermione's orders. Betty Cooper hates Penelope and Hiram. They will all be tense and suspicious." Cheryl says.

"It might work, but it is no guarantee they'd bring Archie. In that case, what would we do?" Charles raises.

"You, me, Jughead, Cheryl and Mum would be there. We'd lure the people who want us outside, one by one. All the rest of us could surround them and make them talk." Veronica finishes.

"There are too many ways this could go wrong." Charles argues. Veronica's plan has potential, and even he has to admit that, but it also seems to complicated. They don't need them all there, there would be no benefit to having all the people who had hurt them in one place, it would make far more sense to target them one by one, and surely Veronica knew that.

Unless her plan wasn't to get Archie back.

If she was planning on dragging them all there, and having them all fight, while recording it, so they could have them arrested,, then her plan was perfect.

"Veronica. Your trying to get them all arrested aren't you? You aren't trying to get Archie back..." Charles says.

"Once they are all in jail it'd be very easy to find Archie. We know who they are, we know where they'd keep people. And we can't spend our entire life scurrying around like rats." Veronica says.

"Why didn't you just tell us that was your plan from the beginning" Hermione asks.

"Because there is a high risk that some of us would get arrested. Why would they not reveal our crimes to the police too?" Veronica says shrugging.

"Oh my god. You were willing to let me go to jail just to bring your father to justice." Hermione whispers.

"We're basically at war, Mum. There has to be sacrifices."

"That's what Hiram would say. You sound like him." Hermione says

"Lets all just calm down. Veronica, we aren't willing to sacrifice half our team. We will come up with a plan to bring them all to justice later on. For now we need to focus on Archie. If Penelope has him he's in little danger, as she will basically just want him as a son. If Hiram has him, we would have received a ransom note. If Alice or Fp, has him, he could be dead, or else in real danger. Which means I think we need to focus on them first." Charles says.

A sharp rap on the door made them all jump. Ricky, Joaquin's brother, ran in.

"They've got a license to search this house! The police have got a license to search this house under pretence of belief that we're the ones holding Archie hostage!" Ricky yells.

"How long till they get here?!"

"Ten minutes!"


	17. God save the prom queen

"What the hell do we do?" Toni mutters, her voice shaking.

"We fight." Cheryl says.

"Literally? Like world war three style? Or like legally?" Jughead says.

Charles feels sick. They can't fight, they don't stand a chance. He knows he is just going to end up back in the hands of Betty and FP and Alice, and nothing they do is going to be able to change that. Hot waves of dread surround him and he chokes slightly in fear.

"We run away for now. Go to the woods. And there, we make a fucking plan. And one that is actually going to work. We do this properly, professionally, and efficiently." Cheryl says.

"No offence, Cheryl, but when have any of our plans ever actually worked? We make a plan, we put the plan in action, all hell breaks loose." Toni says.

"What if we did the same thing as we did with the stonewall preppies?" Jughead suggests slowly.

"What kill them all?" Veronica says, hiding a laugh with a cough.

"No. what if we faked a death. Put cameras up in the cabin in the woods, and covered the place in blood. One of us who isn't wanted by the police calls everyone in, and everyone would go there. We freak them out, make them believe that the devil himself is haunting them for their crimes. Make them confess. Make them think we're supernatural, and we're there to get our revenge." Jughead suggests.

"I can help with the graphics! And the fake blood!" Jellybean gasps with excitement.

"For now, though, lets run. To the woods."

…..

IN THE WOODS.

"When I was younger, the band we were in was supposed to play in a battle of the bands with a group from Greendale." Hermione says. "The band wars got cancelled, after the band was murdered. A prom queen died, and they admitted to it. Then they were all murdered. Of course, we were all focused on other issues- one of our group had murdered our head teacher, but we still knew what happened. Anyway, the building they were locked inside before being burnt to death still stands. It would be the ideal place for us to hold our little party."

"I'm going to go dig up my brother's grave. Anyone else want any bodies they want to put in there?" Cheryl says.

"The infernal drugs that the sisters of quiet mercy gave us should help add to their fear. Would anyone know how to get them?" Charles asks the group.

"Absolutely." Fangs says, and Joaquin and Sweet pea nod in agreement.

"I'll go buy some fake blood." says Jellybean.

"I can set up cameras and recording equipment." says Charles.

"I will write the letters, I have good hand writing." Veronica says.

"Ricky can drop them off, he's small and unknown." Joaquin suggests.

"This is going to be one epic take down." Jellybean said in excitement. A little too much excitement, if Charles was being honest, but then no one ever expected him to be honest.

"It'll be more terrifying than Heathers and Carrie!" Cheryl says, a look of haunting delight on her face.

"Welcome to the Riverdale horror show!"


	18. Riverdale horror show

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Penelope Blossom receives a letter

"I have conceived a plan to bring down several notorious villains in Riverdale." Charles spoke into the phone. "I will have their confessions on tape by morning if all goes to plan."

…...

Penelope Blossom gazed into the mirror and carefully took a strawberry out of the bowl, holding it between her finger tips as though it was poisonous. She delicately raised it to her mouth and bit into it, trying to prevent the juice spilling down her chin.

A knock on the door broke the perfect silence of her room.

"Come in." Penelope called out. She rather hoped it was a client rather than a member of staff, Penelope was rather bored.

To Penelope's dismay, it was just a member of staff.

"What is it, Angelica my dear?" she asks, "Please not my demon spawn daughter again. If its her, please tell her I don't wish to speak."

"It's a letter for you." Angelica replies, placing the letter on the desk and walking away. She shuts the door behind her, and Penelope carefully picks up the letter, holding it like a bomb about to explode.

The ink is green.

The ink clashes with the deep reds of the room. All the rooms in this building are red, the clothes are all red, the lipstick all red. Cheryl's obsession for the colour red was one of very few things tha she shared with her mother.

Penelope squints at the letter, and she would never admit it, but she cannot actually read the writing in the deep light. Sighing, she turns on the lamp and switches it to white light. She blinks at the sudden harshness of the light, her eyes having seen nought but the red glow she preferred.

"Dear Ms Penelope Blossom." the letter read in a fancy swirl that resembled the English monks of ages past. "I have someone very dear to you. Meet me ..." Penelope scanned through the rest of the letter. She gathered up her skirts and her courage. Her demon daughter would not keep her trapped in here any longer.

Penelope swept out of the brothel and hurried to the location stated in the letter.

…

"Okay but what if the agents don't arrive soon enough?" Jughead asked Charles.

"They will do." Charles replied. He knew what Jughead really wanted, and he was not going to give in.

"How did you even manage to talk to them? Your on the run." Jughead said.

"Yes, but their the FBI. I told them that I was being framed by them." Charles replied with a shrug. "They know that their the people I've been investigating, why would they not believe they'd attempt to frame me."

"I want to be outside the building." Jughead finally said, saying what Charles had known he wanted to say for quite a while now.

"No. it isn't safe. If they see us there, they will realize its fake. We can't let that happen."

…

Penelope Blossom stepped into the small building. She began to look around, perplexed and confused as to why she was there. She shivered slightly in the chill that seeped into the place.

After two minutes of waiting, Hiram Lodge arrived, and very shortly after that, Alice Smith, Betty Cooper and FP Jones arrived together.

"Why did you summon me here?" Penelope asked.

"Summon you? I was told to come here by a letter, green ink, old paper, unsigned..." Hiram Lodge says.

Penelope rolled her eyes. "Fine then. Alice, Forsythe, why am I here?"

"It was not any of us who summoned you here." Alice whispers, her voice shaking with fear, her body trembling in anticipation.

"We should leave. Something is wrong." Betty says, a smile wide across her face. She pulls on the door, horrified when it doesn't open. "Something is wrong. Something is very, very, very wrong indeed. we're all trapped." her voice is lyrical, tilting and high, sounding rather childlike.

"Holy Shit!" Alice muttered suddenly. "I know where I am. This place, some teenagers got murdered here when we were in high school. This got nicknamed the room of hell. We need to leave. Like now!"

Penelope felt a heavy rising dread fill her, panic clawing its way out.

Blood spattered down. Penelope heard a scream tear from her throat. The blood was thick, and sweet, and it was spurting out of the ceiling in jets, covering them all in sticky red liquid. Hiram Lodge was trying to maintain a casual posture, Alice was frantically attempting to pull on the door, Fp was cowering against the wall, and Betty Cooper was singing a nursery rhyme.

The blood stopped coming from the ceiling. Penelope raised her finger to her mouth, licking the red off her. She coughed at the coppery, salty and sweet taste. That was undeniably blood. Suddenly, a section of ceiling crumbled away, falling the ground. The body of Jason Blossom fell from the ceiling.

"aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa" the scream that ripped through the room came from the mouth of everyone there.

"Enough!" Hiram Lodge yelled, pulling a gun from his jacket. "Whoever is doing this, stop it! Stop or I shoot!"

The room was plunged into darkness. Smoke came from the floor. Noises whirled into life around them. The room was filled with the scent of decay and rot. The lights flashed eerily, red one second, green the next, all dark shades, all flashing and terrifying.

Footsteps inch around them, the noise of people walking filling them with fear. A child laughs gleefully, and the group look around, determined to find the source of the noise. Sharp laboured breathing fills the room. The lights go completely dark and a black hood, identical to the one Hal Cooper owned, fell to the floor. The lights flash back on, a deep orange this time.

Flashing video clips and images appear on the walls. Penelope can't tell if they are projections or if they are memories somehow being transported there. Scenes of them all appear, of Jason's murder and the birth of the black hood, of the gargoyle king wreaking havoc, clips of Hiram stepping out of his car, and of Betty and Jughead in the stonewall dormitories, tapes appear of FP Jones confessing to shooting Hiram, scenes of Alice kissing Betty.

Betty alone isn't freaking out, the craziness of her brain preventing her from feeling the fear consuming the others.

Penelope is in full scale panic. She is used to being the one causing others fear. She is used to being in control of the terrors that pain others, and now that she isn't, she doesn't like it.

Suddenly, a booming voice fills the room.

"I am Lucifer Morningstar, the judge, jury and executioner! I am what awaits you all tonight! You must all confess to me your crimes, and another seven years on this realm you may be granted to live!"

The confessions come babbling. Fp is the first to break, from his lips spilling about how he covered up the murder of Jason Blossom, how he shot Hiram Lodge, how he raped Charles.

The second to break is Alice. She has less to confess to then the others, what she did to Charles and Betty her only crimes. After all, the murder of Edgar Evernever was licensed.

The third to break is Hiram Lodge. He confesses to a great deal. He confesses to murder, to creating drugs, to threatening people, falsifying records, he even admits to his abuse of Hermione.

Penelope Blossom is next to break. She doesn't want to say, but her instinct for survival is stronger. "I killed Clifford and Claudius Blossom. I was the original gargoyle king, and I killed our head teacher. I poisoned my family after they wouldn't give Cheryl what she wanted. I worked alongside Hal Cooper and Chic to help recreate the gargoyle king. I ran an illegal brothel and I sent my daughter to the sisters knowing full well of the illegality of what went on there." she confesses, her tone cold.

"I have nothing to confess to." Betty says in a sing song voice. "I didn't do anything wrong."

"OH YES YOU DID!" the booming voice yells, filling the room. "CONFESS OR YOU ALL SHALL PERISH."

"I won't let her be the reason we all die!" Hiram yelled, raising his gun. He aimed it straight at Betty and pulled the trigger.


	19. The end

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the final chapter. However, there will be an epilogue after this.

Bang.

The bullet hit Betty in the chest.

Blood spurted out.

Even after everything she had done to him, Charles still felt a little sorry for her, and he definitely felt sick. Watching over the video camera, the group had been delighted at how well it had been going.

Now they were horrified.

Charles heard his mothers scream and tried not to think to hard about what was going on.

Jellybean was watching the screen with a look of horror on her face.

Charles stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into a hug.

"Are you alright?" he asks quietly, wishing above all else that he had made sure Jellybean was somewhere else when they had started this. God, she had even heard their confessions. Charles mentally winces, realizing that today he totally failed at protecting his youngest sister.

He looks over his head to Jughead, who looks worse than Jellybean. His skin is clammy and he is pale and shaking. When Charles meets his eyes he is met with a dark haunted look. God, he really failed at being a decent brother today.

Over the recording equipment, Alice is still crying.

"You killed my daughter! You killed my baby! You killed my only child!" she weeps.

No one in the room has the heart to correct her, and no one outside of the room has the ability to remind her that has has two other children. After all, blood doesn't make a family. Alice screams and weeps, her pain visible to everyone.

"What do we do?" Hermione whispers, unwilling to break the painful quiet.

"Turn it off. We have the confessions, we don't need to frighten them any more. Shut it all off." Charles says, his voice firm with command but shaking with a sense of failure.

They unlocked the doors using the far reaching technology. The group walked together back to where the others were.

"Your going to need a good lawyer, Mum." Veronica said quietly.

"I'm sure Archie's mother will do me well." Hermione responded.

The FBI agents and the police swarmed over to the building, arresting the adults within as they attempted to leave.

Charles wishes he could bring himself to feel something. Success or victory, at finally having gotten revenge on those who had hurt him. Pain and grief, at having lost the half sister he once loved. Anger over what had happened.

Anything would be better than the complete and utter lack of emotions. The numbness consumed him, wrapping itself around his heart like ice, building up a stone wall against the world. The numbness seemed to affect everything, his emotions, his senses, his knowledge. Everything seemed shrouded.

He walks through the crowd, the other agents there congratulating him, patting him on the back, telling him he did such a great job. He doesn't feel as though he did a good job. If he had done a good job, he would have saved Betty before she went crazy. He would have seen the warning signs in Chic and not indulged them, and prevented the reawakening of the gargoyle king. If he had done a good job, he would not have killed Brett and Joan.

If he had done a good job, he would have fought against Alice, FP and Betty harder. He wouldn't have let them have their way with him. He would have been strong enough to fight back. He wouldn't have submitted like a coward.

"Nice plan, it worked really well." one of the agents says. Charles numbly stares at him, unable to remember his name, unable to form words to speak, unable to act like a normal human.

"Jughead." he mutters numbly. "It was Jughead's idea."

He pushes away from the crowd, away from where he can still see Alice and FP. He can't stomach the sight of them. He knows that its weak, but he can't find the energy to be strong. He can't keep up a mask of being okay any longer.

"Charles?" An uncertain voice asks, breaking through his mental walls.

"Jellybean." he acknowledges, glad that he can at least remember her name.

"What they confessed to… what they said they did… was it the truth? What Dad and Mrs Cooper said they did?" she asks in a small voice, unsure if she should even be asking, and terrified for the answer, but also needing to know if her father truly was a monster.

"Yes, it was. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have let you be there, you shouldn't have had to hear that."

"I would rather know the truth than live a lie." Jellybean says.

"Perhaps. I am sorry, truthfully, JB. I should have protected you better."

"And I'm sorry you suffered so much."

And the numbness disappeared, and Charles found himself overwhelmed by the emotions. He turns away and walks off as tears put down his cheeks, unable to contain themselves any longer.


	20. :) the end

The trials were finally over.

Hiram Lodge had managed to weasel his way out of several charges, thus resulting in only being charged for one third degree murder of Elizabeth Cooper, and the abuse of both Hermione and Veronica Lodge.

FP Jones was not charged for the attempted shooting of Hiram Lodge, due to complications in the case surrounding the accusations against both Hermione and Hiram Lodge. He had however been convicted of covering up the murder of Jason Blossom, and of rape.

Penelope Blossom admitted to several murders. She somehow managed to get herself into a reasonably good position once in the prison, by bribing the guards.

Alice had committed suicide the night that they were caught.

No charges had been brought against Charles. Hermosa Lodge had also managed to escape.

Hermione was found innocent after much difficulty in procedures. Mary proved her worth as a lawyer.

Archie Andrews had been found. It had been Alice who'd kidnapped him, in an attempt to bring joy to her daughter. Now Archie and Veronica were engaged, to the relief of Hermione and Mary, who both knew that the two teens needed some happiness.

Charles poured himself a cup of coffee and wandered into the living room of the Cooper Jones house. It was his house now, and Jellybean and Jughead lived there too. Charles had been granted guardianship of Jellybean for a while.

Jellybean was sat on the sofa next to Jughead, playing minecraft. Charles knew that girl was addicted to the game. Not that he really minded, of all the things one could become addicted to, computer games were one of the least harmful.

Jughead on the other hand, had barely lowered his alcohol intake. Charles knew he would have to talk to him sometime about responsible drinking, but for now he would let it slide. God, he was not cut out to be parent material.

"Hey, do you two mind turning that off a minute?" he asked, trying to ignore the headache already blossoming between his eyes. Jellybean switched the screen off.

"JB, I need to ask you something important." Charles muttered, risking a look at Jughead, whom had been informed of Charles's plans a few days ago.

"I want to legally adopt you. If you don't want that, its fine, social services will figure something out. But I thought I'd give you the choice."

"Of course I want that." Jellybean says, a small smile lighting up her face. Charles was pleased, it was the first time he'd seen her smile in a while. Charles smiled at his sister, glad that she had accepted his offer.

He was going to survive this. He and Jughead would be fine. It would take time, and patience, but one day, they would all be okay again.

The end.


End file.
